Nelson Okanya, EMS Alum, opens the annual Augsburger Lectureship in University Chapel. Okanya serves as President of Eastern Mennonite Missions and will speak on An Embodied Witness.

Nelson Okanya was born and raised in the Mennonite community in Kenya where he interacted with EMM mission community in Nairobi. He participated in numerous short-term cross-cultural mission experiences and is a 2002 MDiv graduate of EMS. Nelson served for almost six years as pastor of a multi-cultural; multi-national Capital Christian Fellowship near Washington D.C. Among his areas of interest is Anabaptist witness and mission; he is excited about unique mission opportunities and challenges in the 21st century. Nelson enjoys engaging in postmodern and inter-cultural dialogue with a special interest in the next generation and the church as narrative-formed transforming community.

The Myron S. Augsburger Lectureship provides resources to annually bring to the campus of the college and seminary a noted lecturer to address pertinent topics in the area of Christian evangelism and mission for the stimulation and development of a vision for evangelism and missions for the students, faculty and staff of Eastern Mennonite University.